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Priest
The priest is the master of healing and preservation, restoring his wounded allies, shielding them in battle and even resurrecting his fallen comrades from death. While he has a variety of protective and enhancement spells to bolster his allies, the priest can also wreak terrible vengeance on his enemies, using the grand powers of the Holy Light to smite and purge them or the devastating powers of the shadow to decimate their minds. The priest is a diverse and powerful class, highly desirable in any group and capable of fulfilling multiple roles. The priest is perhaps the best healing class in the game with a surprisingly strong damage potential as well (should the player choose to enhance this aspect of the class). Their ability to heal and buff allies, avoid aggro, dispel buffs on enemies, dispel debuffs on their allies, and resurrect fallen comrades makes them an important member of any group, whether it's PvP or PvE. Due to this, priests are one of the most highly sought after classes for any group. Background Priests practice a complex, organized form of spirituality built around moral philosophy, the worship of a particular deity (such as Elune) in some cases, and/or idol worship, rather than around the reverence of the elements that shamans practice, or the close divine connection with animals and the wilderness that druids maintain. Priests serve not only as influential religious figures in their respective societies, but also as powerful practitioners of divine magic, which they use to heal and protect, or harm and weaken. Devotion to the faiths of Azeroth leads many priests to the paths of courage and heroism. In dark times, priests carry the Light of faith with them as a reminder of the powerful forces at work beyond the comprehension of the peoples who walk the land. Powerful healers with an intimate connection to the divine, priests are empowered with abilities that aid them in times of dire need.World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, 70 Priests comprise quite a varied group in Azeroth. A female priest is called a "priestess". Many are followers, in some manner, of the Holy Light. Some priests choose to be pyremasters or High Priest, while some of the most experienced become epic priests. There are also racial restrictions to some titles, such as witch doctor for trolls and Priestess of the Moon for night elf females. History Human/Dwarf Priests The Clerics of Northshire were human priests who served the kingdom of Stormwind during the First War. The clerics served as healers on the battlefield, but were ill-prepared for the hazards of combat, and thus suffered heavy casualties. This order was largely destroyed, and the Second War saw fragile priests replaced on the battlefield by armored paladins, the Knights of the Silver Hand — established by the clerics' leader Archbishop Alonsus Faol and his apprentice Uther the Lightbringer. During events of the Third War, despite the high elves' official departure from the Alliance, some elves still remained true to their former human and dwarven allies. The altruistic priests of Quel'Thalas refused to abandon their roles as healers and agreed to remain in Lordaeron despite the edicts from their reclusive masters in Silvermoon. The high elven priests used their Light-given powers to heal the wounded and bolster the spirits of Lordaeron’s fighting elite. A holy field medic, these padres roam the battlefield curing the wounds of fallen comrades. Forsaken priests Forsaken who once followed the tenets of the Holy Light altered their philosophy upon their transformation. Most forsaken have abandoned religion, just as they believe it abandoned them. Some still adhere to their old faiths, such as the Holy Light. Priests of the Holy Light in particular struggle to reconcile the philosophy that guided their life with their unfortunate new condition. Some balance their old beliefs with their new forms, but most forsaken priests belong to The Cult of Forgotten Shadow. Lost and hurt, these priests founded a new religion based on a self-centered version of their former faith. This philosophy centers around self-empowerment and a desire to balance life with death. While they can no longer use the Holy Light, and have since learned how to use the shadow; the priests teach that there must be a balance between light and shadow, and members must learn the Light as well, but never forget they were born from the shadow. Troll priests The troll priesthoods are, much like the shamans and the witch doctors of the various troll tribes, spiritual advisers and caretakers. With trolls being naturally superstitious and spiritual, it allows the various troll priests to manipulate the spiritual energy of the world in order to either heal or harm their targets. The various energies that the troll priests draw can come from various sources, be it Loa spirits, voodoo magic or the target itself. Drawing upon these energies, the troll priests either mend or harm, depending on which blessing the spiritual entity bestows. Arguably, in World of Warcraft, troll priests can be considered witch doctors in a cultural perspective, in equal terms with the shamans. Notable priests Overview Abilities *Healing: single target heals, group heals, heals over time, Resurrection. *Holy magic: Power Words, buffs, dispels and cures, direct damage. *Shadow magic: Shadow Words, direct damage, damage over time, mana drains, aggro control, Mind Control. *Miscellaneous: limited crowd control. Stats, weapons, and armor *The most important stats for a priest are (depending on the chosen talents): intellect, haste, spellpower, stamina and spell crit. *The priest begins with proficiency in staffs, one-handed maces, wands and daggers. *The priest can only wear cloth armor. For details on set items that are useful for priests, see priest sets. * Priest recommended enchantments Races The priest class can be played by the following races: Talents :Main articles: Priest talents and Priest builds. Discipline The discipline tree focuses on damage mitigation and strengthening the priest's buffs such as Power Word: Fortitude and Inner Fire. Discipline priests have Penance, which is one of the most efficient single target heal spells in the game. The tree is generally concentrated to keeping a Tank alive, while supporting the raid with damage mitigation through the highly improved Power Word: Shield and fast dispels. Disc priests also have a collection of "panic" buttons with short cooldowns that can be used to prevent a raid member (mainly the tank) from dying to an unavoidable circumstance. Discipline is also the preferred spec for PvP; with the shortage of mana regen and intellect on PvP gear the efficiency of the discipline tree, and the ability to keep yourself alive through an onslaught, really shines. Holy Holy priests are one of the most versatile healers in the game, with a variety of tools to sustain their group. In the fifth row of the holy tree, a priest can get a very useful talent for only five points. Spiritual Guidance increases the priest's spellpower by 25% of their Spirit. Next to that is Spirit of Redemption, which not only increases total Spirit by 5%, but when the priest dies, it brings them back to life as a Spirit that can cast any healing spell free of charge for 15 seconds. This can easily prevent a wipe. In the ninth talent row a very useful ability of the holy priest is Circle of Healing, which instantly heals the lowest five party/raid members around the target and has only a six second cooldown. This spell is key in the ability of the holy priest to AoE heal a raid. The final ability in the tree is Guardian Spirit. The Spirit increases the healing received by the target by 40% and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target for 50% of their maximum health. Guardian Spirit lasts only 10 seconds, but has a fairly short cooldown of three minutes, or 2.5 minutes if glyphed. Shadow Shadow talents primarily enhance a priest's damage. One of the most important shadow spells gained through shadow talents is Mind Flay, a three second channeled spell that causes damage and slows the target to 50% of its movement speed. The Spirit Tap talent is generally the recipient of any priest's first talent point. After killing a mob that grants experience or a player that grants honor, Spirit Tap doubles the priest's spirit and allows 83% mana regeneration while casting for 15 seconds. Another important talent in the shadow tree is Vampiric Embrace, available at level 30. This shadow spell places a buff on the priest for thirty minutes, which heals all party members for X% of the priest's single-target shadow damage. It is also the pre-requisite to Shadowform. The Silence spell and its prerequisite, Improved Psychic Scream, are utility talents placed in the middle of the shadow tree. It is generally used for PvP purposes. Another vital talent of the shadow tree is Shadowform. When activated, Shadowform gives the priest a 15% shadow spell damage bonus and a 15% reduction to all damage taken. It also prevents the casting of holy spells, except for Cure Disease and Abolish Disease. As such, Vampiric Embrace and Devouring Plague are the only options besides consumables for priests in Shadowform to heal themselves. One of the most useful shadow talents, Vampiric Touch, causes a 15 second DoT effect on the target. On a successful Mind Blast hit, it places the Replenishment effect on up to 10 raid or party members, which restores 1% of their total mana every 5 seconds for 15 seconds. Tactics Priests are generally regarded as a tough class to play in PvP, but they are highly desired in battle grounds. They are easily the best healer in the game and a great utility class. They are very dependent on how their talent points are spent. A priest that spends most of his talent points in the discipline tree will be better off in PvP, while holy and shadow priests are highly desired for instancing and raiding. While the discipline and holy talent trees focus on making very strong healers, the shadow tree focuses on damage dealing, while restoring the party's health and mana at the same time. Many players regard healing priests as being the jack-of-all-trades healing class due to the great diversity of healing spells at their disposal. This includes direct healing, healing over time, area of effect healing, and the ability to shield targets from damage. Due to this great diversity, a healing priest can heal any encounter, while the other healing classes may find it more difficult. Healing priest tactics generally involve conserving mana while deciding the ideal time to heal. The player must decide which spell to use and at what time. While Flash Heal and Power Word: Shield may be very mana intensive, they are excellent methods to bring someone close to death back up quickly. Many priests use a tactic known as stopcasting. In this method, the priest will constantly use Greater Heal; however, if in the 2.5-second cast time the target never takes sufficient damage, the priest will cancel the heal before it goes off and begin recasting. The goal of a shadow priest is to keep a series of spells with unique cool-downs and durations going constantly. A shadow priest must cycle through several direct damage, channeled, and damage over time spells. A shadow priest is unique in that Vampiric Embrace restores health to the priest's entire party, which is based upon the damage the priest deals. They can also help restore mana to up to 10 party or raid members through Replenishment, which they trigger by using Vampiric Touch in conjunction with Mind Blast. A shadow priest, if talented, will also increase the effectiveness of all spell casters attacking the same target as the priest. These abilities make the shadow priest a great utility class while in instances and in raids. End-game expectations See also *Starting a priest *Getting your first wand *Priest quests *Priest PvE guide *Priest PvP guide *Useful Macros for Priests References External links ;General Guides barrens.chat Seebus' guide to Holiness - raid healing and levelling de:Priester it:Priest pl:Priest ru:Жрец Category:Priests Category:WoW classes Category:Core classes Category:World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game Category:Classes